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WASHINGTON — Americans of working age are going to the doctor less frequently than they were 10 years ago, according to a new report by the Census Bureau.

In 2010, people ages 18-64 made an average of 3.9 visits to doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, down from 4.8 visits in 2001, said the report, which was released on Monday.

The precise reasons for the decline were unclear, said Brett O’Hara, an official at the Census Bureau and a co-author of the report. But the changing demographics of the American population most likely had something to do with it.

As baby boomers retire, for example, they leave a working-age population that is on average younger and that tends to use less health care. Still, that is likely to be only a small part of the explanation, as the baby boomers began to move into retirement only at the end of the report’s period, about two years ago.

Another possible reason for the decline in doctor visits, O’Hara said, is that the share of uninsured working age people has expanded over the past decade. People without insurance are less likely to visit a doctor, said the report, which was based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation, a long-running survey of more than 80,000 households. The share of working-age Americans without health insurance was 21.8 percent in 2010, according to the Census Bureau, up from 17 percent in 2001.

DALLAS — The federal government is examining two separate incidents in which passenger seats came loose midflight on American Airlines planes in the last three days.

American said Monday that it would inspect those and six other Boeing 757 jets overnight that use a similar seat assembly.

The Federal Aviation Administration said both planes had recently undergone maintenance work that required seats to be removed and reinstalled. American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said an initial review found that there could be a problem with the way the seats fit into tracks on the floor.

Boeing Co. declined to comment other than to say it had nothing to do with the recent maintenance work involving seats.

On Saturday, a flight from Boston to Miami made an emergency landing in New York after three passenger seats came loose shortly after takeoff. The airline said there were no injuries, and passengers were put on another plane to Miami.

On Monday, an American flight from New York to Miami returned to John F. Kennedy International Airport after loose seats were discovered.

The incidents involved separate repair facilities and groups of American Airlines and contract workers, Huguely said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Investigators from France and Switzerland will conduct parallel probes into the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Palestinian officials said Monday. His remains will be exhumed, at a date kept secret, to give each team a chance to draw samples to test for poisoning.

The two teams are acting separately on behalf of Arafat’s widow Suha Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, who each had misgivings about the other’s investigation.

The push to re-examine Arafat’s 2004 death come after a Swiss lab’s recent discovery of polonium-210, a deadly radioactive isotope, on clothes said to belong to the Palestinian leader. This fueled new suspicions of poisoning.

The French team is composed of criminal investigators acting at the request of Suha Arafat, while the Palestinian Authority invited the Swiss lab to also come to examine the remains of the longtime leader and determine how he died eight years ago. A spokesman for neither team could be reached immediately for comment.

Arafat’s death in a French hospital in November 2004 has remained a mystery for many.

CHICAGO — Four Boston-area artists and researchers are among 23 recipients of this year’s so-called “genius grants” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

They will receive $500,000 over the next five years from the Chicago-based foundation. The grants being announced Monday night are designed to provide freedom to pursue a creative vision.

The local winners include Harvard University economist Raj Chetty, who studies how policy affects real-world behavior, and MIT fiction writer Junot Diaz, whose works describe the various worlds that immigrants straddle.

Children’s Hospital neurosurgeon Benjamin Warf is honored for his treatment of hydrocephalus and brain diseases in children and his work to improve health care in the world’s poorest regions. Benoit Rolland of Boston is honored for his work as a stringed instrument bow maker who uses new designs and materials.